Credit update - great news!

I haven't talked about my finances for a while. All is great!

Last hour, I checked my credit score. My credit score went up by 60 points on the Canadian scale!

It is a big deal. I have been in the poor category for a few years. I am now in the fair category. Yay!

My goal is to get my credit score in the good range. I need a credit rating of at least 713, which is doable as I continue my journey to repair my credit rating.

I'm pleased. It does take a lot of work. It's nice to see results.

Making progress

On Friday, I was in a knowledge session meeting for work. Towards the end of it, I looked at the list of participants and noticed that my ex was there.

I didn't feel anything. I wasn't annoyed or hurt. I wasn't happy to see him online. I was indifferent. I have made progress.

In the past, he has told me that he always goes through the participant list in his meetings. I wouldn't be surprised that he did so in this one.

I told him to stop contacting me. He has respected my wish so far since we texted in early July. Perhaps he has made a bit of progress, too.

I do pity him. He ruined a good thing and only has himself to blame.

The United States has a President-elect and a Vice-President-elect now. I feel hopeful that this change will be a positive one.

It's payday!

I get paid by my employer every two weeks. Technically, I get paid every other Thursday.

I do love my bank. It deposits my pay electronically by 22:10 on Wednesday night. I spend a bit of time paying various bills based on my bill payment schedule. It's an Excel spreadsheet. I have had a number of variations over the years, but the current one has guided me out of my darkest debt stage.

It makes me so happy paying bills and seeing results. I also like that I can put money away towards my retirement and emergency fund. It was challenging doing it a year ago.

Things are looking up and good with my finances. It takes a lot of effort and planning to get out of debt. I'm so pleased that budgeting has paid off (pun intended)!

Election results - Canada voted!

Monday was election day. We voted our Prime Minister back. However, he leads a minority government this time around.

I had voted at the advance poll before heading to the Twin Cities. It's important to vote.

I like watching election results come in. It explains why I am writing this post so late on a weeknight.

I'm off to bed!

407 ETR survey rant - poorly designed and delivered survey

Tuesday was a crazy and, at times, stressful workday. I technically have three rants, but I will go with the one that has nothing to do with work.

Just before dinner, I got a phone call from a person doing a survey on behalf of 407 ETR, which is a toll highway. I take this highway going to work, but don't coming home because it can get expensive.

By doing the survey, I would receive 100 km of free travel on this toll highway. This woman pointed out that it would take fifteen minutes to complete this survey. Cool.

Well, the more I got into the survey, the more I found so many issues and flaws. This survey actually took over thirty minutes to complete. This woman sounded older. She had a British accent. She couldn't type, attentively listen to my comments, or form a simple sentence.

This survey was biased. It was really to find out what customers thought of 407 ETR after an employee who used to work there stole a list of customer phone numbers and names for his own political needs.

I frankly wanted to voice how expensive rates are getting to travel on this toll highway. I have been taking this highway for over eight years. I used to take it both to and from work. Since it's so pricy these days, I only drive on it going to work. I didn't get to express the increase in rates and how I cannot afford to travel on it to and from work.

There were a series of questions where I had the option of rating the statement as great, somewhat great, somewhat poor, and poor. I said to this woman that I wished there was a rating between somewhat great and somewhat poor. She revealed that there was. What?

There is an apparent neutral option. She didn't disclose it until I had made my statement. As a person who declared math as a major and switched it to a minor during my undergraduate days, I was outraged. Why hide this option? You are skewing your survey results.

That's when I realized that this survey was biased.

She said later on that it would look bad to her manager if I answered a bunch of questions with a neutral response. I frankly told her that I didn't care what her manager thinks. I was here to voice my answers and I felt that this survey was rigged.

On a ballot, would you hide a candidate's name? Why would you hide a neutral option on a survey question?

To add insult to injury, she called me a "he" at the end of the survey, when we finally got there. I pointed out that she was rude. I made sure that I got my free kilometres of travel and hung up.

I like doing surveys, but I will never do one for 407 ETR again. The free kilometres isn't worth the insult, time, and aggravation.

Oh, and I disliked when she would say periodically to me, "Moving swiftly." Um, you aren't. You have spent twice as much time to get me through the survey than you had initially promised.

Ugh!

My sugar levels are great and I'm glad I can touch-type!

On Friday, I went to see my family doctor for my routine three-month checkup. The last time I was there, my sugar levels were higher than normal.

I had bloodwork done on Wednesday. She shared the results with me. Everything looked great. Yay!

I shared that news with my guy. He's proud of me. Getting back on the low-carb routine does wonders.

My doctor has changed her process of note-taking in her office. She now uses a computer instead of writing notes down everywhere. She complained to me that her typing takes forever.

Touch-typing is second nature to me. I suggested that she take a touch-typing course when she has a chance. Once you learn, you're good. I'm so glad that I took this course in my final year of high school. It has served me well.

Election to the south and Canada's immigration Web site crashed

In 2000, I moved to a city in Minnesota to start a new career, which has served me well ever since. It was the same year in which this Canadian had to endure the U.S. election between George W. Bush and Al Gore.

I tuned in to ABC that evening. The results were tight. I went to bed. The following day, the results were still up in the air. It all came down to hanging chads and the archaic way of using punch-card ballots, which were made by my employer!

I sort of feel the same way with the U.S. election results right now. I don't expect an immediate, definitive result because the race is so tight. It is also sad that Americans seem to be voting for the lesser of two evils, relatively speaking.

One thing that my ex and my guy have in common? Politics. The former was a professor of political studies. My guy has an interest for politics. As for me, I have a love for math. So, I tune in to election results because I like numbers.

It's an important election. If Trump wins, some Americans have vowed to move to Canada. Our immigration Web site crashed a few hours ago. It's that bad.

It's funny, but my guy and I both heard about the site crash and we immediately told each other. We are one, even under weird circumstances like this one.